"I knew I needed to lose weight when all my clothes stopped fitting. But, I chose to buy new clothes instead.

At a doctor’s appointment, I stepped on the scale only to realize that I was 10 pounds heavier than I thought I was. But, I didn't do anything about it.

The turning point came when my cousin shared a picture she’d taken with me in it. I didn’t recognize myself.

I got on the scale and calculated my BMI only for it to tell me I was ‘mildly obese’. I never imagined myself as obese and decided to make it a New Year’s resolution to lose weight.

Over the next few years, I lost around 40 pounds. Then, I gained 25 of those pounds back.

I needed some extra motivation to shed those 25 pounds I’d regained. I had heard about HealthyWage on TV and decided to give it a try.

I figured if I was going to lose the weight again, I might as well make some money doing it. The monetary incentive seemed like the kind of thing I needed.

When playing with the Prize Calculator, I knew I wanted to make a profit of around $500 and that my bet amount each month needed to be an amount that would really hurt if I lost it. So, I decided to bet $200/month for 6 months that I would lose 25 pounds (my ultimate goal is 30 pounds, which will put me at the weight on my driver’s license). Once I customized my challenge, I placed my bet and got started.

Now, I’ve been sucked into buying just about every weight loss program that has ever been advertised on television in the last 20 years. I knew what I needed to do to lose weight, so with the boost of motivation from HealthyWage, I began sampling some of my greatest hits I’ve seen success with over the years.

I started off with meal planning and portioning out my proteins, veggies, fruits, carbs, and fats similar to what I had learned from Autumn Calabrese’s Portion Fix nutrition program. After a month of being consistent with the portion containers, I no longer relied on them as much as I was now able to intuitively shop and prep meals.

And, when it came to preparing meals, I realized that the simpler I made things, the better! I turned to foods and meals that didn’t require much prep work such as hard-boiled eggs, raw fruits and veggies, meats bought in bulk that I could cook in the crockpot and portion out throughout the week, nuts, cottage cheese, protein bars, etc.

In addition, I started implementing intermittent fasting. I like the thought of letting my digestive system do its entire thing and emptying out before putting more food in it, which I heard takes about 16 hours, so most days I kept my eating window between 10:30am-6:30pm. In the evening if I still felt like snacking I would go brush my teeth. It's so ingrained in me not to eat after I brush. That was a little trick that I came up with that really helped!

At the beginning, I didn't add any exercise because exercising typically makes me hungrier. I wanted to get used to consuming less calories before adding workouts, which took a couple months. After that, I got back on my routine (Monday- arms. Tuesday- cardio. Wednesday- yoga and core. Thursday- cardio. Friday- legs. Saturday- yoga. Sunday- hiking) and decided to also train for a 12k.

Prior to starting my challenge, I was never into using apps or chatting online. But, HealthyWage showed me they can be excellent tools. If I was going through a hard time, I’d reach out to my fellow challengers on the chat feed in the app. There was one day in particular that I was struggling with staying on track. I posted in the group and immediately received so much support from everyone, including HealthyWage Coach D who gave me the boost of motivation I needed in that moment. It felt amazing! From that day on, I was hooked on the chat feed!

I met some ladies that were doing a plank exercise challenge for the month and joined them. It was so much fun! We all had such a great sense of humor. I even exchanged contact info with one of them and we have become great friends and call each other multiple times a week! At the end of that month, I wrote a poem about it called ‘Ode to Planks’ and posted it. It was fun to get my creative muscles working out again too! I kept up with posting in the feed, sharing when I had a non-scale victory, a slip up, a meal idea, a tip to pass along, or to see how my buddies on there were doing, and to offer encouragement. The chat feed and online support from my fellow HealthyWagers was really an emotional boost.

When my 6-month challenge came to close, I submitted my ending verified weight showing I had met my goal of losing 25 pounds! HealthyWage confirmed my win and paid me $1,652 ($452 profit)!

I went into this challenge knowing I would win. I never let a doubt enter my mind.

It feels amazing to fit back into my clothes (that I like!) again, and to look the way I feel I ought to. I’m stronger, both physical and mental-wise, and now know what I’m capable of.

Losing this weight and winning my HealthyWager have given me the confidence to know I can accomplish any goal as long as I have a game plan and stick to it. I wish there was an app that would pay me to keep my house clean!”